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Could Katie Couric Return To "The Today Show"?

Will Zucker even be around at that point once the takeover with Comcast happens? He can't really expect that they would leave him in charge and not want to replace him with someone from inside or at least well known to Comcast and not a leftover from the old regime.
 
Couric back on Today? Chances are 1 in 99. Why should she go backwards?

Better chance would be her continue on CBS and add a show on CNN. That is my prediction within now and 2011.
 
Meredith is a professional. How about a trade?

Then again, "Today" would become cutesy again. Not that I have seen it except maybe on Thanksgiving while setting up to tape the Macy's Parade, but Meredith isn't cutesy.
 
Steve Beverly, on his website, is (perhaps facetiously) mentioning
Julie Chen as a possible replacement for Katie on the "CBS Evening
News" if her new talk show tanks. I don't think he's a big fan of Julie's;
says she's added nothing in terms of ratings to "The Early Show" and he
cares little for "Big Brother". She gets these jobs because her husband
happens to run CBS; Beverly even slightly sarcastically suggested that if
she had wanted to host a game show there would be a game show going
into "As The World Turns"' s timeslot.
 
bpatrick said:
Steve Beverly, on his website, is (perhaps facetiously) mentioning Julie Chen as a possible replacement for Katie on the "CBS Evening News" if her new talk show tanks. I don't think he's a big fan of Julie's... She gets these jobs because her husband happens to run CBS...
Click to expand...

I wonder if Moonves instructed Beverly at gunpoint to write those nice things about Mrs. Moonves... ::)
 
And its easy to make those assertions without a shred of proof to back them up. That two facts are true doesn't prove causation.

As for the Early Show, does anyone seriously think anyone is going to magically propel it past the other two shows?
 
bpatrick said:
Steve Beverly, on his website, is (perhaps facetiously) mentioning
Julie Chen as a possible replacement for Katie on the "CBS Evening
News" if her new talk show tanks. I don't think he's a big fan of Julie's;
says she's added nothing in terms of ratings to "The Early Show" and he
cares little for "Big Brother". She gets these jobs because her husband
happens to run CBS; Beverly even slightly sarcastically suggested that if
she had wanted to host a game show there would be a game show going
into "As The World Turns"' s timeslot.
Click to expand...

Okay here is my two cents worth on this topic.

I believe the smart thing for CBS is to hire Lester Holt away from NBC and make him the anchor of the CBS Evening News once Couric's contract expires. It's not because he's a black male, but has proven to be an excellent anchor of NBC's weekend news, along with being a very good reporter.

As for Couric going back to NBC, I must agree with a few other posters that it would be paramount to "Back to the Future" for Couric. You know the old saying: "You can never go back home again." Besides for Couric that would be a career setback. And what happens to Meredith? Can you picture her and Couric on the same show? I sure can't.

Couric and CBS parting company is just speculation right now anyways. Let's wait and see what happens as Couric's contract comes expiring.
 
I certainly agree with the Lester Holt strategy. Lester is extremely versatile -- on the one hand anchoring Nightly News, on the other anchoring Weekend Today. One plus with Lester's current job is that he works 40 hours in two days!!! ;D
 
Mark_Giardina said:
... what happens to Meredith? Can you picture her and Couric on the same show? I sure can't.
Click to expand...

Maybe there could be a celebrity edition of "Millionaire"... ;D
 
Mark_Giardina said:
As for Couric going back to NBC, I must agree with a few other posters that it would be paramount to "Back to the Future" for Couric. You know the old saying: "You can never go back home again." Besides for Couric that would be a career setback. And what happens to Meredith? Can you picture her and Couric on the same show? I sure can't.
Click to expand...

Awkward, perhaps, though it might be less of a setback than doing nothing (or bouncing down to some little-watched outpost) if for whatever reason CBS didn't renew her contract.
 
Keep Katie at CBS but place her on The Early Show. Then Lestor Holt can be anchor of CBS Evening News. Seems like CBS would become NBC News 2 if this all did happen.
 
A couple of points. I really like Meredith on Today a lot more than I did Katie. But I could also see them working together, but not likely. (ABC did o-k pairing Diane and Robin.) What I really think will happen for Katie is that she'll be a contributor to Sixty Minutes and perhaps an occasional human interest special in prime time.

And I agree wholeheartedly that Lester Holt is an excellent broadcaster in every sense of the word. He's almost a throwback to an era when Television news was much, much better. Any net should be glad to have him. If NBC is smart, they'll try to hang onto him. But then NBC has made some real bone-headed moves lately so........
 
NBC News, though, hasn't made many errors reflected in the ratings lately (I'm talking about the broadcast network, but even with MSNBC, at least they found an approach that gained some ground; you're not going to out fox FOX, but they've carved out a niche, which is about all that can be asked in the overall landscape).

Both the Today Show and evening news transitioned seamlessly to new personalities and maintained their leadership positions.
 
imhomerjay said:
NBC News, though, hasn't made many errors reflected in the ratings lately (I'm talking about the broadcast network, but even with MSNBC, at least they found an approach that gained some ground; you're not going to out fox FOX, but they've carved out a niche, which is about all that can be asked in the overall landscape).

Both the Today Show and evening news transitioned seamlessly to new personalities and maintained their leadership positions.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

The direction that they went with MSNBC was very smart, given the success of FNC. At least they are beating CNN and that's something which would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

On the broadcast side, NBC is the last one of the big 3 not to make a huge personnel gaffe on its most important news programs. David Gregory is a lightweight when compared with the late Tim Russert, but he gets the job done. ABC's choice of Amanpour over Tapper is nothing short of idiotic. And, as far as evening news programs go, CBS' selection of Katie Couric has clearly not panned out. ABC didn't do much better with Diane Sawyer, but Couric's performance is so bad that we hardly notice as ABC stays in second place.

Still (and here's where I am going with this), NBC has been very wise in its decisions as far as their news is concerned and they have cleaned up in the ratings. Basically, they're getting an ever larger percentage of a shrinking pie as far as evening news goes. But it's good enough to keep their news programming viable for a long time to come. CBS is on the opposite path. And, ABC has muddled around for the past 5 years.

Lastly, as far as Lester Holt is concerned, I think he has the makings of a great head anchor. He has an excellent presence at the anchor desk and would be a fine replacement for Katie Couric or for Diane Sawyer. At this point, Brian Williams is the current standard and I must say that NBC did a fine job of making sure that he was ready to take over for Tom Brokaw. He has come a long way since the days when he subbed for Brokaw; Lester Holt is already a lot farther along as an anchor than Williams was on his first day as lead. He has a very promising future in news and is very versatile.
 
Holt proved himself on MSNBC during the Iraq war. On the first day of the war, he anchored hours and hours of coverage, asking pertinent questions and was generally unflappable and never tongue-tied. Since then, he has proven his versatility as Weekend Today anchor (after the tragic death of David Bloom) and, then, Weekend Nightly News (after cost-cutting eliminated John Siegenthaler). Holt would make a great anchor of the CBS Evening News.
 
I know the arguments about Jake Tapper and This Week, and while I did like his work there as a fill in, I actually prefer him not doing it full time....not because of "This Week," but because I think his work at the White House is such that I wouldn't like to see it truncated by the duties on the Sunday talk beat full time. I get the whole "anchor" bit, but, honestly, I think having good folks on high profile beats full time is every bit as imporant as who does a one-hour stint on Sunday mornings (and all the prep it takes). I know they'd use him during the week, but dude does need some down time. And, purely personal taste, I do think ABC's combo of Tapper/Karl/Raddatz is quite good, all things considered.
 
bpatrick said:
..."Meet The Press," which did not fall from number one after David Gregory replaced the late Tim Russert.
Click to expand...

And Christiane Amanpour is not making things any difficult for the folks at 30 Rock...

BRNout said:
...as far as Lester Holt is concerned, I think he has the makings of a great head anchor. He has an excellent presence at the anchor desk and would be a fine replacement for Katie Couric or for Diane Sawyer. At this point, Brian Williams is the current standard and I must say that NBC did a fine job of making sure that he was ready to take over for Tom Brokaw...
Click to expand...

Remember some years ago when MSNBC had a nightly series titled "The News With Brian Williams," which groomed him to take over for Brokaw. Holt, too, had his own show on the network - "Lester Holt Live" - at around the same time. Which makes me think there's been at least some consideration for Holt to one day fill Brokaw's (and Williams') shoes.
 
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